Comments on: Extra Frugal – How Frugal Can You Go?

By: bill bush

bill bush — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 03:53:02 +0000

I hate to pay $!.19 for a travel size tube of toothpaste, so I just keep a plastic travel-size tube and refill it from my main tube by forcing the two openings precisely together, then squeezing the main tube’s contents into the travel size. Be sure to do this just before beginning your normal toothbrushing so that any that escapes can be used for its regular purpose.

My dentist says you only need a dab of toothpaste the size of a green pea, so that helps make a tube last longer. The full brush-length amount shown in ads is just for encouraging consumption and artistic appearance.

Also, for a free monthly fluoride treatment, just spit but don’t rinse out the toothpaste from your morning brushing once a month, just before you leave for work. It will have time to penetrate and you can rinse your mouth once you get where you’re going.

If you have a couple of stainless steel water bottles, one can be ready to travel with you at any time. Save $1.49 every time you leave the house! If you take a Fiber One bar and an apple when you leave the house for a period that would include lunch, you can eat well and cheaply. Or put the morning’s left-over coffee into a small stainless thermos to carry along. A stainless thermos will pay for itself very quickly. Yes, it is heavier, but you need the exercise! And it makes a pleasant interlude in the day to have a drink you like during a relaxed moment.

For some surprising savings on a daily expense, try reading the markings on your washing machine detergent and the accompanying dipper. You’ll find a full dipper is probably for an extra-large load of really nasty clothes. You should probably be using about 1/3 of a typical dipper.

Rest your shoes. Do not wear the same pair on consecutive days. They will hold up better and smell better, too. Get good shoes and take care of them. Find a clerk who cares to fit you properly and return to him/her regularly. My guy knows what characteristics a shoe should have to work for me. I nearly choked when he told me to get a pair of $89 sandals, but I have worn them for three summers and they are well worth it in comfort and arch support.

Make soup! it uses leftovers well, is warming and delicious, and gives you only one pot to wash. Casserole, burger and pizza leftovers can be thinly sliced and included. They’ll blend in surprisingly well.

Cabbage/carrot slaw is often cheaper to serve than salad, and serves much the same purpose in a meal. Add finely shredded onion or a chiffonade of flat Italian parsley from your side garden to jazz it up and improve nutrition.

Enjoy!

By: Marlene

Marlene — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 17:44:52 +0000

We buy large bottles of laundry detergent, and when it gets to the end, my husband props it up so a corner is facing down, then pops a hole in that corner and lets it drain into a cup….we get at least 3 loads worth of soap that would be thrown away!

By: jenn

jenn — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 11:27:04 +0000

Because of my hair dressing experiance, I know that you don’t need an elaborate amount of lather to het clean hair. I have alway’s used a travel shampoo bottle filled half full of shampoo the rest water. Shake till it’s blended.I have made a 12 oz. A 12 oz. Bottle of shampoo has lasted me up to a year or more. Having color treated hair, I need to. Use good shampoos but being frugal want to make sure I get my dollars worth out of an expensive solon shampoo!

By: david

david — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 22:21:59 +0000

That’s great Dawn! Will have to try that one next time

By: Dawn

Dawn — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 21:41:40 +0000

I use a squeezer for my toothpaste, but I’m a fanatic when it comes to tubes of lotion for hands or face. I cut open the tube where the seamed end is and wrap a piece of saran wrap with a rubber band over the end to keep it from drying out. When my finger isn’t long enough anymore, I cut off some more till I get to the end. I have gotten as much as a 2 or 3 weeks worth of lotion and that is using it every day.
I have a friend who uses roll on deodorant and when she can’t get any more out, she has her husband cut the container open at the neck area, then she uses her finger to get more out. Hey, your underarms are supposed to be clean already, so why not? lol

By: marci

marci — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 21:12:45 +0000

Guilty

By: JBird

JBird — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 23:17:11 +0000

I use the flat edge of my comb to squeeze out as much toothpaste as possible. Basically like the toothpaste squeezer, but I have one anyway! I suspect any sort of flat blade-like implement would work (like the back of a place setting knife?)

By: Sarah

Sarah — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 22:34:19 +0000

Yeah, we squeeze the toothpaste until our fingers are finally glad we give it up!!
I read your post a while back about hauling your own trash, and boy does it sound worth while. We make 1 bag of trash a week but I can’t find a dump anywhere nearby!! Guess that one won’t work for me and I’ll have to keep paying the trash company:(

By: david

david — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 16:37:03 +0000

I am sure they are, but I didn’t have to buy anything to get it out.

By: cheryl

cheryl — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 16:02:31 +0000

I bought one of these toothpaste squeezers at the dollar store. Gets all the paste out without having to cut it open.

http://epicfu.com/blog/2008/05/ideas-worth-their-weight-tooth.html